
Great Basin
The Great Basin is a geographic area between the Sierra Nevada mountains on the west, the Rocky Mountains on the East, the Snake River on the North and the Sonoran/Mojave Deserts to the south. About 95% of the state of Nevada is in the Great Basin. About half of Utah falls within the Great Basin, as do small parts of California, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming. The defining attribute of the Great Basin is that precipitation falls within it’s watershed and never reaches an ocean. It drains to the salty basins and lakes of the interior Intermountain West where it eventually seeps into the ground or evaporates. All water drains internally. (Excerpted from Great Basin Seed).
For its first 150 miles in the United States, the Columbia forms the reservoir behind Grand Coulee Dam. The river then bends west, south, and east through central Washington, turns south and then west, and forms the border between Oregon and Washington to the Pacific Ocean. The mouth of the river is about 10 miles west of Astoria, Oregon. The total length of the river is about 1,243 miles. The drainage basin covers 259,000 square miles, and drains portions of seven states and British Columbia, and covers three degrees of latitude and nine degrees of longitude.
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The Columbia mainstem has many large and small tributaries, including the Snake (1,078 miles), Kootenay (485 miles), Deschutes (252 miles), Yakima (214 miles), and Willamette (187 miles).
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From its headwaters to its mouth, the river drops steadily at a rate of about two feet per mile, and most of its course is through rock-walled canyons, emptying an annual average of 192 million acre-feet into the Pacific; much of its volume originates in its middle and upper reaches. The combination of high volume and stable canyons made the Columbia an ideal hydropower river. Today there are 14 dams on the mainstem Columbia, beginning with Bonneville at river mile 146 and ending with Mica at river mile 1,018. In addition, there are more than 450 dams throughout the basin. Dams on the Columbia and its major tributaries produce half of the electricity consumed in the Pacific Northwest.
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Map of the HUC 6 watershed sub-basins in the Great Basin that were used for this analysis. Click on the polygons to obtain information about listed species by taxa in each HUC 6 watershed (as of 23 January 2025). Or click here to open the map online.
The following is a summary of the listed species and critical habitats found in the Great Basin. Click on the blocks below to obtain more detailed information about the listed species and critical habitat in each HUC 6 (as of 23 January 2025).
The following is a summary of the listed species and critical habitats by taxa in the Great Basin.
Conifers and Cyads

Photo credit: Jen Hooke, NPS​
1. Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) (T)
Flowering Plants

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Autumn Buttercup (Ranunculus aestivalis) (E)
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Clay Phacelia (Phacelia argillacea) (E)
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Dwarf Bear-poppy (Arctomecon humilis) (E)
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Fish Slough Milk-vetch (Astragalus lentiginosus var. piscinensis) (T)
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Heliotrope Milk-vetch (Astragalus montii) (T)
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Last Chance Townsendia (Townsendia aprica) (T)
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Maguire Primrose (Primula maguirei) (T)
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Spring-loving Centaury (Centaurium namophilum) (T)
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Steamboat Buckwheat (Eriogonum ovalifolium var. williamsiae) (E)
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Tiehm's Buckwheat (Eriogonum tiehmii) (E) (CH)
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Ute Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis) (T)
Reptiles

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Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) (T) (CH)
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Northwestern Pond Turtle (Actinemys marmorata) (Proposed T)
Birds

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​​​​California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) (EXPE) (proposed CH)
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California Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) (Proposed T)
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Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) (Proposed T) (proposed CH)
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Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) (T) (CH)
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Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) (E)
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Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) (T)
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Yuma Ridgway's Rail (Rallus obsoletus yumanensis) (E)
Fishes

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Bonytail (Gila elegans) (E)
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Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus) (T)
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Clover Valley Speckled Dace (Rhinichthys osculus oligoporus) (E)
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Colorado Pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) (E)
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Cui-ui (Chasmistes cujus) (E)
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Desert Dace (Eremichthys acros) (T) (CH)
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Devils Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) (E)
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Hiko White River Springfish (Crenichthys baileyi grandis) (E)
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Humpback Chub (Gila cypha) (T)
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Independence Valley Speckled Dace (Rhinichthys osculus lethoporus) (E)
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June Sucker (Chasmistes liorus) (T) (CH)
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Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi) (T)
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Moapa Dace (Moapa coriacea) (E)
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Mohave Tui Chub (Gila bicolor spp. mohavensis) (E)
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Pahranagat Roundtail Chub (Gila robusta jordani) (E)
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Pahrump Poolfish (Empetrichthys latos) (E)
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Paiute Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii seleniris) (T)
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Railroad Valley Springfish (Crenichthys nevadae) (T) (CH)
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​Razorback Sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) (E)
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​White River Spinedace (Lepidomeda albivallis​) (E)
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White River Springfish (Crenichthys baileyi baileyi) (E)
Insects

Photo credit: Thomas Dunkerton Neal-Smith NWR, Thomas Dunkerton/USFWS
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Carson Wandering Skipper (Pseudocopaeodes eunus obscurus) (E)
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Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) (C)
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​Mount Charleston Blue Butterfly (Icaricia (Plebejus) shasta) (E) (CH)
Snails

​Photo credit: Bruneau Hot Springsnail, USFWS
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Bruneau Hot Springsnail (Pyrgulopsis bruneauensis) (E)
Lead USFWS Offices in the Great Basin
Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office
1387 South Vinnell Way, Suite 368
Boise, ID 83709-1657
(208) 378-5243
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Reno Fish and Wildlife Office
1340 Financial Boulevard, Suite 234
Reno, NV 89502-7147
(775) 861-6300
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Wyoming Ecological Services Field Office
334 Parsley Boulevard
Cheyenne, WY 82007-4178
(307) 772-2374
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Utah Ecological Services Field Office
2369 West Orton Circle, Suite 50
West Valley City, UT 84119-7603
(801) 975-3330
State Agency Leads for a Dreissenid Response
in the Great Basin
Wyoming
Joshua Leonard
Wyoming Game and Fish Department
joshua.leonard@wyo.gov, (307) 343-5533
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Oregon
Keith DeHart
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Keith.B.DEHART@odfw.oregon.gov, (541) 962-5998
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Idaho
Nicholas Zurfluh
Idaho State Department of Agriculture
Nicholas.Zurfluh@isda.idaho.gov, (208) 334-2840
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Nevada
Kevin Netcher
Nevada Department of Wildlife
kevin.netcher@ndow.org, (775) 777-2333
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California
Martha Volkoff
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Martha.Volkoff@wildlife.ca.gov, (916) 651-8658
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Utah
Bruce Johnson
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
brucejohnson@utah.gov, (385) 228-3066